“You have a lot of really good candidates,” Trump tells Newsmax. “Chris Christie’s a great guy. He’s a friend of mine. You really have someone really good there. Rob Portman, who I don’t know, but I hear fantastic things about. Certainly he’s been very well vetted over the years. He’s a professional who’s been there a long time. He’s been through it. He knows the game and he’s a very, very solid citizen.

“On a younger side, you could look at Sen. Rubio, who I think could help with Hispanics. But he is young, and I think he sort of doesn’t want to go through it and doesn’t want to do it.

“They have a lot of very good people.” He adds with a smile: “Probably the best choice of all would be Donald Trump.”